$12.1 million is on its way to communities in rural Alaska for sanitation project development—including water, wastewater and solid waste systems that can improve health by addressing dire sanitation conditions, like a lack of indoor plumbing.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced at AFN that the communities of Quinhagak, Shageluk, Nunapitchuk, Buckland, and Akiachak will receive grants from the USDA’s branch of Rural Development. The State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) were also awarded funds for the maintenance of rural Alaskan utility systems.

Vilsack visited Alaska in 2009 and said through meeting with community leaders and program partners, he recognized that Rural Develoment’s sanitation programs needed to be more accessible for rural Alaska. Through a streamlined application process, more than $200 million for rural Alaskan sanitation has been acquired since 2009.

And the USDA also recently announced a Cooperative Agreement between their Rural Development branch and the Association of Village Council Presidents. The two organizations hope to provide better service to residents of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region by working together. The agreement states that AVCP will now be assisting the USDA in projects, outreach, and community and economic development in the region.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/04/rural-alaskan-communities-to-receive-12-1-million-for-sanitation-projects/feed/0Rare Bison Species Returning to Western Alaskahttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/13/rare-bison-species-returning-to-western-alaska/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/13/rare-bison-species-returning-to-western-alaska/#commentsWed, 13 Aug 2014 17:20:53 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=11169Wood bison have been extinct in Alaska for over one hundred years, but a new population will be released along the Lower Yukon River near Shageluk in early 2015.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/08/2014-08-12-Wood-Bison.mp3

Early next year, a long-absent animal will return to Western Alaska.

Wood bison, which have been extinct in the state for over one hundred years, will be released along the Lower Yukon River near Shageluk in the spring. The release is part of a joint conservation effort by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Canadian government.

Until recently, wood bison were protected under the Endangered Species Act. While they had gone extinct from the United States altogether, researchers discovered a disease-free population of the bison in Northern Canada – a breeding herd that has since grown to more than 500 animals.

In late March of next year, a group of 40 to 100 Canadian wood bison will be transported from the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage – where they have been acclimating to the Alaskan climate since 2008 – to the Lower Yukon Valley.

“It’s called a soft release,” said Rita St. Louis, a planner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. “They’ll be fed hay for a while. Then [we’ll] coax them across the river with hay, like Hansel and Gretel following cookie crumbs. Then as soon as green-up comes, they’re on their own.”

St. Louis said the bison have been designated a “non-essential, experimental population,” which means that the strict regulations normally afforded a protected species will not apply to these particular bison.

“These animals are treated like any other animal in Alaska. If it’s legal to do, you can do it with these animals,” said St. Louis.

This special provision, called the 10-J rule, will allow for commercial and subsistence-based land use in the same territory as the protected bison. It will also protect subsistence users from being federally charged in the instance of incidental take. ADF&G has expressed hope that this provision will make humans in the area more amenable to sharing the land with their bison neighbors.

Joy Hamilton, an elementary school teacher in Shageluk, said she’s looking forward to the bison’s arrival – but doesn’t view it as a homecoming for the long-absent animals.

“It would be a whole new introduction, rather than a re-introduction from my point of view,” Hamilton said. “The landscape has changed, the environment has changed…since we have any record of wood bison in this particular area.”

Hamilton added that this could pose a unique cultural challenge for communities in the region.

“All these animals we have had a relationship with, and we have stories about them,” she explained. “Moose, and birds, and beavers – even mice and frogs. But there are no stories about bison. So this is going to be a new thing for us. Creating our own cultural connection and respect for the animal.”

There are also practical concerns. At a public meeting to discuss the release, subsistence users in Shageluk wanted to know how the bison might impact food sources like berries, whether they would attract predators like wolves, and who would determine how the animals are managed. Many also asked: How would the wood bison taste?

Though ADF&G estimates that it will be nine to fifteen years, at least, before the wood bison population grows to a point where it could be used as a subsistence resource, a spokesperson did bring bison jerky for community members to taste.

While Hamilton is more interested in the wood bison as a teaching opportunity for her students, she does have a suggestion for future advocates hoping to persuade subsistence users in the region: Next time, bring bison steak.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/13/rare-bison-species-returning-to-western-alaska/feed/0BLM Asks Lower Yukon-area Residents to Name ‘Critical’ Resourceshttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/06/blm-asks-lower-yukon-area-residents-to-name-critical-resources/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/06/blm-asks-lower-yukon-area-residents-to-name-critical-resources/#commentsTue, 06 May 2014 16:14:31 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=8808The Bureau of Land Management is drafting a new land use plan for 10.6 million of acres in its Bering Sea-Western Interior planning area, including lands in and around dozens of Lower Yukon communities.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/05/2014-05-06-BLM-Critical-Lands.mp3

A federal agency drafting plans for 10.6 million acres of land along the Lower Yukon is seeking input from residents on natural and cultural resources of “critical” importance.

“It’d be helpful for us to get information from some of those communities about what they think is important nowadays,” said the bureau’s project coordinator Jorjena Daly, “and whether or not those original reasons for designation still have meaning today.”

The BLM’s existing plans date back to the 1980s, and identify five critical habitat areas—including salmon and sheefish spawning grounds near Unalakleet; one of the largest spawning areas for chum salmon in the Yukon River in the Anvik River; a large population of “trophy class” grizzly brown bears also near the Anvik River; and Peregrine falcon nesting habitat along the lower Yukon.

Daly said some of those “critical” areas may be outdated—while new “critical” areas should be added—to the plan BLM will use in determining how federal lands in the area will be used over the next 20 years.

“We might determine there are certain areas of BLM land where we would want to discourage a utility corridor, or a right of way of some sort, due to some resource concern that we might have in the area,” Daly said.

On the other hand, she said, “we might come up with areas where we would recommend development, that sort of thing.”

Daly said other areas that may need the “critical” designation can include more than just land use and subsistence concerns.

“There could also be cultural areas of significance to people locally, and that’s another reason to make a recommendation,” she added.

Meetings last summer helped shape the current draft, which Daly said now incorporates projects already in the works, like GCI’s Terra Southwest network. The outreach has helped the bureau learn of other projects in the management area as well.

“Many of the communities told us about this proposed road from the Yukon River to the Kuskokwim that’s been in discussion for quite a while,” Daily said. “Even though that road won’t be constructed on BLM land, that’s an example of a development project we learned about through the meetings that we would want to take into consideration.”

Submissions for new areas of critical environmental concern opened May 1, and can be proposed through August 29.

Group marks the start of Alaska Native and Native American Heritage Month with a community walk in Nome;

Researchers discover a bat species in SE Alaska that hasn’t been known to inhabit the area;

Three Nanook wrestlers took first place in this weekend’s wrestling tournament.

http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2013/11/2013-11-04-knom-update-news.mp3
]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/11/04/update-news-november-4th-2013/feed/0Rested, from Iditarod: Mackey & Lindnerhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/03/08/rested-from-iditarod-mackey-lindner/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/03/08/rested-from-iditarod-mackey-lindner/#commentsFri, 08 Mar 2013 19:58:23 +0000http://www.knom.org/on-the-trail/wp/?p=1798Lance Mackey and Sonny Lindner hit the trail to Shageluk in the 10’o clock hour last night, fresh from a 24-hour layover in the Iditarod checkpoint. Lance abandoned his original plan to push to Anvik for his 24, taking into account the long, hard run getting to Iditarod from Ophir. The trail was “demanding,” and temperatures are warm. He said his dogs were looking good, but he didn’t want to “take the wind out of their sails.”

Lance believes setting out on the trail after Martin Buser and the few other mushers ahead of him may, in fact, give him an advantage. Taking a 24-hour layover later in the trail gives him a fresh team from this point, and he thinks it wasn’t a bad decision at all to stop where he did. “In fact, I think it’s going to benefit this team.” But, he aims to stay within striking distance of the race leaders: “I have this gut feeling we’ll be seeing Mr. Buser by Kaltag at the latest.”

Temperatures are high for the race this year, into the 40’s during the day. In Iditarod, Martin Buser said his team is from a warmer area of the state than some of the others, and thought they could be more used to warm weather. But Two Rivers musher Sonny Lindner sees the effect of the warmer weather on his team and says they aren’t looking as fresh as he’d hoped after a 24-hour layover: “it automatically doesn’t look fresh, just because it’s so warm. But hopefully inside them, they’re feeling pretty good.”

After racing 40+ years, Sonny has seen a little bit of everything that the Iditarod trail has to offer. He is running this race according to the ability of his dogs, following his schedule, dealing with the heat and having fun along the way.

Nome-grown Aaron Burmeister massages feet after feeding dogs during a 5-hour break at the Iditarod checkpoint. Photo by Laureli Kinneen.

After resting for 5 hours 19 minutes, Aaron Burmeister left Iditarod at 6:05pm Thursday – most likely for a 90-mile run through the hills to Shageluk and on to Anvik. Two teams departed before him – Martin Buser at 2pm and Aliy Zirkle at 5:20pm. Burmeister left with 15 dogs and hinted that when his team drops to 10, expect a push.